Something Simple
by spero spiro
Summary: Riku returns to the Destiny Islands one clear night without his memories and finds a boy who seems strangely familiar asleep on the sand. Shonen ai. AU


**Something Simple**

**Note: I'm happy with myself. I spent a great deal of time giving myself an awful case of the warm and fuzzies by reading other fanfiction, and now I get to sit down and try my hand at something I haven't been able to do since… Argh, since before my Rurouni Kenshin days. Fluff. There's still a bit of the angst-y flavor to this, but I'm satisfied with how it turned out in the end. I'm reluctant to give this a PG-13 rating, as there's nothing in it that should constitute such a high rating with the exception of the fact that this is a SHONEN-AI story. If I were to rate it PG, I think I may find myself in a world of pain, as some people think it deserves a higher rating. So I follow the guidelines and put it up with a higher rating. Blah. I can't bring myself to at least make the story FIT with the rating, because it would ruin the whole mood I'm trying to build. As long as you, the reader, are comfortable reading shonen-ai, then this story probably wouldn't exceed a PG rating. What can I say?**

**Disclaimer: insert usual spiel and don't sue> **

**WARNING!: Let it be known unto thee that the yonder fanfic contains SLASH between two boys. If ye are not comfortable with such subjects, then please help thyself to all of ye olde 'back button' ye please. Bando-chan will be quite angry with ye if ye should leave ye olde flames for her, and will use said flames to toast ye. **

Riku stepped in the sand from his boat. It yielded to his weight, but a few white grains fell into his bare toes. He looked up to the black sky; dotted with a thousand-thousand stars all shining down on…

_(((Blue eyes closed?))) _

_(((Summer's skin?))) _

He inhaled the night air, relishing its cool caress on his lips, which turned up just slightly into a smile. The world seemed to revolve around a single creature, which lay helpless and asleep on the white sand. Riku stepped toward it, something in his heart causing it to pound. What was it?

_(((Lust)))_

He shook his head. That wasn't right. He didn't feel as though such a word was right to describe what shined right on out through the cracks in his heart, which he had long since believed to be given over to the darkness within.

_(((Longing)))_

He knelt down beside the sleeping creature, moon-pale fingers tracing the shape of its face and then plunging into its silk-thread hair.

_(((His)))_

Riku nodded slowly, moving his other hand to touch the smooth, browned skin. "I know you," He whispered, leaning down to let his lips brush the creature's ear. "Why do I know you?"

The creature- a boy, by all means- rolled over, mumbling at a nightmare. Riku only smiled slowly and brushed a stray lock from his face. "Who are you?"

_(((Sora)))_

Riku jerked, the name leaping from the deep recesses of his memory. He clenched his head, near screaming in pain. Hadn't he given enough? The scars on his eyes told him so. The feeling of memory returning was not unfamiliar, but what had compelled Riku to sacrifice his memory in the first place?

_(((To protect)))_

The voice from his subconscious came with the lack of memory. As if it were a part of who he once was, it told him the answers to his questions.

He closed his aquamarine eyes and leaned over the boy again to whisper in his ear. "Why do I want to hold you?" He laid a soft kiss on the boy's jaw. "What did you mean to me?"

_(((The whole world)))_

The boy was stirring, and Riku sat back. "Why am I still here?"

_(((We've been looking)))_

"For what?" Riku cried into the empty night, watching the boy slowly wake from whatever clutched him in slumber.

_(((Him)))_

Riku watched him, the black of his long coat spread over the moonlit sand. His hair was scattered across the same sand, and Riku wondered what brought the boy to simply lie there. His hand instinctively reached over to gingerly touch the boy's forehead. _Wake up,_ He urged the sleeper; this enigmatic Sora he had apparently been looking for.

Sora's eyes fluttered open and shut once. Twice. Then…

_(((Inconceivably beautiful blue)))_

"Riku…" The boy whispered, reaching out a hand worn and calloused with a long time of fighting with a weapon. "You're…"

_(((Home)))_

"You remember me," Riku stated blandly, unable to think of anything to say without his memories of the boy.

Sora's eyes widened. "Of course I do!" He cried, staring at his friend in bewilderment.

The older boy looked away. "I can't remember you," His long fingers traced over the sand, leaving soft sketches. His eyes slid shut, a hand coming up to cover them. "I want to remember who you are."

There was a flash of something-or a myriad of something's- in his eyes. Riku could hardly remember enough to know what they were when he looked up to see them.

_(((Pain))) _

Yes, Riku could now see _that_ one clear enough. But there was more… Riku strained himself-despite the pain it brought- to remember them.

_(((Memory))) _

_(((Shock))) _

_(((Sadness))) _

He could see those were there as his subconscious voice whispered them to him. But there was something else…

The teenager was holding himself back from something, but Riku knew it wasn't what he was missing.

"I'm sorry," The whisper came over the crash of the ocean.

Sora's voice was restrained as it came back to him. "I know you are," His hand had fallen to his side, where it clenched and unclenched with sand within it.

Riku shut his eyes, trying desperately to uncover the memories crying to be found. They were so close, closer, even, than he was to the teenager. For the first time in a very long time, Riku felt like crying in frustration.

A wave crashed, rolling up to brush Sora's feet.

"You… really can't remember," He whispered, holding himself back again. His eyes pleaded with him to remember, to… do what?

_(((Awaken)))_

But there was still _that look_ in Sora's eyes. He knew it, he _knew_ that he knew it, but what kept him from finding it within him? It felt like it was something so completely simple.

"I want to," He tried to reassure the boy, whose name was all he could recall. "I'm trying to."

_Hey, Riku! You don't mind if I jog your memory?_

The splinter of memory hit Riku like a slap to the face. With it came the memory of other pain, dealt by the same boy who sat before him.

Other battles, other lives…

_I won't let you use me for this!_

_That_ Riku remembered plainly. He had been struggling against the demon sleeping in his heart, trying to protect someone. Could it have been…

_(((Sora)))_

But there was more to it than that simple action. Why would he want to protect the boy? And why did the beach they sat on urge more memories to rise to the surface?

It was… This place was…

_(((Home)))_

Home. The word drove through him like a bullet, tearing away the filmy layer of forgetting. Home was…

_(((Hot sun))) _

_(((Palm trees swaying))) _

_(((Salty breeze))) _

But that wasn't all. A thousand images assaulted him all at once, splitting his head in pain. He grimaced, clenching his head again, where the pain was a thousand times more concentrated than it had been before. They were memories of more than the sunny beach and the storms. They were memories of a girl with red hair.

_(((Kairi)))_

Another girl, two boys. They were his… friends?

_(((Selphie. Wakka. Tidus.))) _

Even further Riku reached into the memories. There was a wooden sword; a dream to go farther; a paopu.

_(((A promise))) _

"Riku!" Sora's hands were on his forehead; his back; his face. The silver haired boy did not care. He only stared up at him with a stronger memory resonating in him.

There was more than the island in his memories of home. There was…

_(((Sora)))_

The name reverberated in his ears over and over again, and he hoped it could unlock the simple secret in Sora's eyes.

_(((Sky))) _

Yes, there was a sky. But- Riku's mind cut him off. That was not all. _Sora_. Sky.

"Sora," He whispered faintly, drawing his hands away from his head and staring up at him dimly. The magic word was there in his mouth; out in the world. He could speak it and hope for something to happen, but the memories would not come forward. "_Sora_."

This time, the return of memory did not hurt him as it had before. Instead, the onslaught of emotion and memories came with a very sudden realization of what else had been in Sora's eyes.

Faint hope glimmered there now, watching, as Riku's own eyes began to clear.

"You're home, Riku," Sora told him, a hand in the older boy's hair. "After all this time, you're home."

_(((Love)))_

Like another slap to the face, it hit Riku with all the force from years of being forgotten. It was there, in him, too. One of the overwhelming emotions that had come back to him, it rose to the surface, where Riku gave into its impulse.

"_Sora_!" He cried, dragging the boy into his arms and laying his face in the mess of unruly, soft, brown hair. "Oh God, Sora," He whispered, unwilling to ever move again. He closed his eyes.

The younger boy, though quite taken aback, did not resist or push him away. It took him a few instants, but he slowly raised his arms and embraced his oldest friend. He could find no words, but it no longer mattered as the two kneeled in the pale sand, with the moon shining above them.

_"Riku!" Sora cried, staring at his friend with desperation in his eyes._

_He turned, with the black coat he'd taken up turning with him, but did not say anything. He simply stared at Sora expressionlessly. _

_Sora clenched his fists, looking oddly helpless without the Keyblade he had refused to summon. "Don't walk away like this!" _

_Riku turned away as if he had not heard him and started to walk toward the shimmering portal that led to another world. _

_The only problem was that Sora was not sure he would see Riku again on the other side of that portal. He said nothing about the Organization, nor did he ask why Riku had chosen against him again. "Why, Riku?" He shouted after him. _

_"Is it a fight you want?" Riku stared at him evenly over his shoulder, unwilling to betray his want to stay with Sora and find a way home together. It was better to keep themselves away from one another. _

_"No!" Sora took a step forward. "I can't fight you anymore." _

_"Then we're done." _

_Sora stared at him, a strange determination burning in his eyes. "This isn't over, Riku!" _

_"Yes, it is." _

_"Riku!" _

_"Go, Sora. Go to Kairi, or Naminé, or whoever it is that can soothe you." _

_"I don't want them!" Sora cried, a small touch of panic in his tone. "It's you!" He paused for an instant, and then went on in much more subdued tones. "I… think that I may love you," His voice failed, and he said no more. _

_Riku faltered for less than a second, but closed his eyes and started through the portal. "Goodbye, Sora."_

The memory was strong in Riku's mind, burning him in regret. Of all the things to do… what had been wrong with him? He still wore the same coat as before, but something was missing that had forced him to choose between what he had wanted and what would have kept them both safe.

"Riku?" Sora finally spoke, and Riku knew the memory was strong in him too.

"I know, Sora," He stared at the ground. "It was right, for that time."

A hopeful pause preceded Sora. "And… what about now?" He didn't dare move for fear of what could come.

And Riku pulled back, not to stand and walk away again, but to stare at the brunet with a warm swelling in his chest.

_(((Acceptance)))_

_(((Hope))) _

_(((Love)))_

"Something simple," He pushed back a rebellious strand of hair from blocking those impossible eyes.

Sora caught that same hand and held it close to his cheek. It was only another moment of staring one another down that he leaned over and pressed a chaste kiss on Riku's cheek. "I don't need anything else."

The waves crashed on the shore, but the water touched neither of them.

**End**


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